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5.1.2 Where and how to seek reciprocal linking

Once you have found the candidate sites that have high link popularity and link quality as seen through link analysis, the next step is to choose those that you believe may agree to reciprocal linking. Your competitors obviously would not, but in respect of others, you must try. Several sites have a page where they list useful links or relevant links, as a service to their site visitors. You can locate the email of the company or of the person who handles link requests for such list pages.

When you make a request for reciprocal linking, approach the target site owner or webmaster or link request handler by providing your URL and a short description and explain how providing this link would be a valuable and useful addition for the benefit of their audience. The description is important as often that would be what appears in their links page. Offer them reciprocal linking from your site’s links and resources page. Better still tell them that you have already provided a reciprocal link to their site.

Build a good links and resources page on your website. Present the links in an organized manner so that this is useful to your site visitors too. Of course, you do not want this links page to be amongst the first pages accessed by your visitor, as this may induce the person to leave your site. Some webmasters try to build a standalone links page that is totally isolated from all other pages on their site. This would perhaps provide an URL to the reciprocal link provider, but in reality it is not a genuine link page at all. Avoid these tactics; they will not work in the long run.

Finally, not all sites are equal and therefore not all links are equal. A link from a high traffic industry portal is worth infinitely more that a link from a low-traffic free-for-all site. Concentrate of giving the search engines what they really want - great content, well-organized, well-published and linked to other relevant material. Concentrate on that and you will be rewarded.

5.1.3 Inward Linking

Like reciprocal linking, inward links to your website can be an effective strategy to increase your website’s visibility to Search Engines. Inward links are links pointing to your websites from other websites without providing a reciprocal link from your website.

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